King Arthur Comments and a Recipe

Hi all - I got my [exceedingly huge!] shipment from King Arthur last week and
have managed to try out a few things -
-My new lame is nifty! More fun than necessary - I was using a utility knife
[with a razor blade in it - is that what its called?] but the lame looks more
kitchenish.
-The butter flavor powder I ordered smelled like butter but when I added it to
the biscuits I didn't taste any difference! I also ordered some others,
including cheddar cheese and creole tomato - I'll let you know how they come
out.
-My new baking pan is terrific!! I bake by hand [although this would be fine
if you bake in the oven and mix and knead in a machine] and I've discovered
that many of the recipes I come across are in the 4-5 cup of flour range -
making this into two loaves - my pans were too big! When I found the
explanation in Clayton's book I realized why I was having rising problems in my
"loaf" pans with certain bread recipes [they were fine with 3 C each, but 2-2.5
were too little] I didn't want to buy all new pans only an inch or so
different so I had been baking round loaves on my pizza stone - however it was
hard to make sandwiches from that shape [hubby and I are brown baggers]. The
catalogue had a great pan - the sandwich pan [surprise!] - made by ecko -
nonstick and heavy , its an extra long loaf pan made to holde 4-5 cup of flour
recipes [not total dough - just flour component] I tried it out and it worked
perfectly! Great high loaves which "looked like real bread!" as my husband
wonderbread lover said.
-I tried the "new" strain of white whole wheat flour which is supposed to have
all the nutrition of regular whole wheat without that whole wheat bitterness.
I tried it out and so far it does seem to be an improvement : it still makes a
brown bread, and when I used it exclusively in a loaf [with some extra gluten
of course] it came out noticeably less bitter than my previous 100% whole wheat
loaves which caused me to stop making 100% whole wheat bread! I also used it
to make my favorite biscuits [adapted from one of the recipes in The Complete
Book of Bread - Clayton] which is an extremely easy last minute recipe:
Biscuits
2 C Flour [up to one C whole wheat]
1/3 C shortening
1 and 1/4 C milk [buttermilk can be substituted - I use skim]
1 tsp salt
4 tsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
Cut in shortening and mix ingredients lightly [till lumpy] - drop heaps [1/4 to
1/3 C] on sprayed or nonstick baking sheet and bake at 500 for 8-12 minutes - I
fork split them like english muffins - yum!
I've also made up batches using milk or buttermilk powder to give to
"noncooking" friends as a just add water and bake recipe - they love it!
Happy holidays to all if its your season - if not - happy spring! Cherie